effort to appease the right wing of the Republican Party in
Oregon to enhance his election chances.

Similarly, McCloy had the Peck commission to advise him. The
Peck Commission consisted of David Peck, a judge in the New York
Appellate Division, Fredrick Moran, chairman of New York Board
of Parole and Brigadier-General Conrad Snow. The Peck commission
was only authorized to reduce sentences and not to challenge the
legal decision of guilt. While the Simpson Committee was limited
to reviewing the trials held at Dachau, the Peck commission was
limited to the trials at Nuremberg.

While McCloy blocked the executions of some war criminals before
his appointment as High Commissioner of Germany, it wasn’t until
after his appointment as High Commissioner that he opened the
doors to Landsberg Prison. McCloy insisted until his death that
releasing the war criminals was not politically motivated.
However, nothing could be further from the truth.

The industrialists' trial, once considered to be of equal
importance to the main Nuremberg Trial concluded as the Soviets
blockaded Berlin. Even as the convicted directors of Krupp and
I.G. Farben were being taken to Landsberg, they knew there was
little prospect of having to serve out their sentences. Germans
and the fascists within America believed that they were just the
innocent victims of left wing fanatics. The Nazi’s allies within
the United States had been successful in smearing the trial as
such. In Landsberg, the prisoners settled into a comfortable
routine. Flick maintained control over his empire through weekly
visits from his lawyers accompanied by whichever business
associates that were needed. Flick also chosen Hermann Abs as
his financial advisor. Abs was "rehabilitated" already with the
aid of General Clay and was heading up the Reconstruction Loan
Corporation.

By the time McCloy arrived as High Commissioner there was a
concerted drive to rebuild German industry as a bulkhead against
he Soviets. Abs informed McCloy that the key to Germany’s
recovery and cooperation was the release of the industrialists
from Landsberg. McCloy was also told the same by Karl Blessing,
a war criminal that Allen Dulles saved. In fact, McCloy was told
that by any German he cared to listen to.66

On August 28, 1950, McCloy received the recommendations of the
Peck Commission. The commission had been appointed on March 20,
1950 and was controversial from the beginning. In fact, under
various state laws it would have been illegal. Some of the cases
that the commission was to examine had already been reviewed
three times. Under most state laws, it was illegal to appoint a
second appellate court to reexamine the findings of another
appellate court. Nor would an appellate court have the authority
to pardon criminals, they would be limited to reducing the
sentence or commuting death sentences to life in prison.
Nevertheless, the Peck Commission was given such authority.

On the morning, the Peck commission reported their findings they
stated they had examined the judgements upon all of the
prisoners, along with interviewing them and their lawyers. While
that sounded reasonable enough to the inexperienced, it wasn’t.

Even in a clemency hearing in front of a governor, the views of
the district attorney and trial judge are presented. Yet not a
single prosecutor or judge from the tribunals were consulted.
Nor had the Peck Commission opened a single page of the
transcripts and documentary evidence. In fact, the crates of
transcripts and evidence made available to the commission were
never opened. The only materials from the trials that were
reviewed, were the verdicts, which spanned 3000 pages. The task
of reviewing all of the material from the trials would have been
an impossible task in the time McCloy allotted for the Peck
Commission. The transcripts exclusive of the briefs and
documents filed spanned some 330,000 pages. A speed reader
reading the at the rate of 1,200 a minute would need seventeen
months to get through the Nuremberg transcripts. 67

In reality, the Peck Commission served as nothing more than a
politically motivated blue ribbon panel. McCloy use the
commission’s recommendations as an excuse to justify his actions
in freeing war criminals.

Both the Simpson and Peck commissions were politically
motivated. The Nazis were counting on their agents and
sympathizers in other countries--- including the United
States--- to do their bidding after the close of the war. The
conservative faction of Congress did not disappoint the Nazis.
In fact, the conservative Republicans by the end of the 1940s
had succeeding in perpetrating the myth that the Nuremberg war
criminals were not criminals but were instead the victims of
Roosevelt. By the decade’s end, many people had come to accept
that myth. This conservative faction was aroused to action by
the Malmedy Trial and the false charges made by Nazis within
Germany of torture and brutality. Included in this fraction was
John Rankin and Harold Knutsen, the pro-fascist Minnesota
congressman. Also, included were Francis Case Republican
representative from South Dakota and John Taber Republican
representative from New York.

John Jay McCloy died in Stamford, Connecticut, on 11th March,
1989.

Clinton Murchison was born in Dallas, Texas, on 12th September,
1923. His father was a successful businessman who had made a
fortune from investments in real estate and construction,
railroads, and oil. He studied mechanical engineering at Duke
University a in electrical engineering before obtaining a
master's degree in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.

After the death of his father, Murchison and his brother
inherited the family fortune. Based in Dallas the brothers owned
the Daisy Manufacturing Company, the Centex Corporation; Field
and Stream magazine, Henry Holt Publishing Company (later known
as Holt, Rinehart, and Winston) and Delhi Oil. Murchison also
formed a company to collect manure and process it to produce
methane gas. The remaining nutrients were then recovered and
sold as commercial cattle feed. He named his method the
Calorific Reclamation Anaerobic Process (CRAP).

In the late 1940s, Murchison and another Texas oil mogul, Sid
Richardson, met J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation. It was the start of a long friendship. In 1952
the men worked together to mount a smear campaign against Adlai
Stevenson, the Democratic Party candidate for the presidency.
Hoover and his friend, Clyde Tolson, also invested heavily in
Murchison's oil business.

Murchison was also closely liked to the Mafia. In 1955 a Senate
committee discovered that 20 per cent of the Murchison Oil Lease
Company was owned by Vito Genovese and his family. The committee
also discovered Murchison had close financial ties with Carlos
Marcello. Later, Bobby Baker claimed that. "Murchison owned a
piece of Hoover. Rich people always try to put their money with
the sheriff, because they're looking for protection. Hoover was
the personification of law and order and officially against
gangsters and everything, so it was a plus for a rich man to be
identified with him. That's why men like Murchison made it their
business to let everyone know Hoover was their friend. You can
do a lot of illegal things if the head lawman is your buddy."

Murchison developed extreme right-wing political opinions and
along with his friend, Haroldson L. Hunt, was a supporter of the
John Birch Society. Murchison funded the anti-communist campaign
of Joseph McCarthy. According to Anthony Summers, Murchison was
also "a primary source of money for the American Nazi Party, and
its leader, Lincoln Rockwell".

In 1954 Murchison joined forces with Sid Richardson and Ralph
Young to gain control of the New York Central Railroad. This
involved buying 800,000 shares worth $20 million.

Murchison also owned Tecon, a construction company. It was
involved in several projects including the St. Lawrence Seaway,
the maintenance of the Panama Canal, and the construction of a
tunnel under Havana harbor for Fulgencio Batista, the military
dictator of Cuba. In 1959 Murchison purchased the Dallas Cowboys
for $600,000 and helped fund the Texas Stadium.

Rumours began to circulate that Murchison might have been
involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A friend of
Murchison, Madeleine Brown, claimed in an interview on the
television show, A Current Affair that on the 21st November,
1963, she was at his home in Dallas. Others at the meeting
included Haroldson L. Hunt, J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, John
J. McCloy and Richard Nixon. At the end of the evening Lyndon B.
Johnson arrived. Brown said in this interview: "Tension filled
the room upon his arrival. The group immediately went behind
closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced,
reappeared. I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I
said nothing... not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing
my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke
with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love
message, but one I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those
goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again - that's no
threat - that's a promise."

In 1970 Murchison's fortune was estimated to be $350 million.
However, in the early 1980s he suffered from the fall in the
price of oil. In 1984 he had to sell the Dallas Cowboys for $80
million. The following year he was forced into bankrupcy.

Clinton Murchison died on 30th March, 1987.

1) Anthony Summers, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (1993)

Texan oil moguls Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson... had
assets in excess of $700 million, not counting as much again in
untapped oil reserves.

Recognizing Edgar's influence as a national figure, the oilmen
had started cultivating him in the late forties - inviting him
to Texas as a houseguest, taking him on hunting expeditions.
Edgar's relations with them were to go far beyond what was
proper for a Director of the FBI. And although the Murchison
milieu was infested with organized crime figures, Edgar
considered him "one of my closest friends."

"Money," the millionaire used to say, "is like manure. If you
spread it around, it does a lot of good." Murchison and his
Texas friends spread a great deal of dollar manure on the
political terrain.

They had traditionally been conservative supporters of the
Democratic Party - until the presidency of Harry Truman. He
enraged oil men by publicly denouncing their tax privileges, and
by vetoing bills that would have brought them even greater
wealth. Murchison habitually spelled Truman's name with a small
t, to show how little he thought of him.

Murchison's political instincts were of the far, far Right. He
was a fervent supporter of states' rights, reportedly funded the
anti- Semitic press and was a primary source of money for the
American Nazi Party and its leader, Lincoln Rockwell, who
considered Edgar "our kind of people.'

During the Truman years, musing in private about the perfect
political lineup, Edgar had named Murchison and Richardson as
ideal candidates for high office - or at least as financial
backers for politicians to his liking. Murchison had been
obliging ever since. He threw money at Edgar's friend Joe
McCarthy, placed airplanes at the Senator's disposal and
promised him support "to the bitter end."

(2) Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993)

The Hunts and the Murchisons present the images of different
versions of right-wing politics, with the Hunts allied to
opponents of Washington, particularly when they were supporting
southern resisters to integration, and the Murchisons playing
their connections to Washington, Johnson, and Hoover, for all
they were worth. Nelson Bunker Hunt was behind the hostile ad
that confronted Kennedy in the November 22 edition of the Dallas
Morning News.

(3) Bobby Baker, interviewed in 1990.

Murchison owned a piece of Hoover. Rich people always try to put
their money with the sheriff, because they're looking for
protection. Hoover was the personification of law and order and
officially against gangsters and everything, so it was a plus
for a rich man to be identified with him. That's why men like
Murchison made it their business to let everyone know Hoover was
their friend. You can do a lot of illegal things if the head
lawman is your buddy.

(4) David E. Scheim, The Mafia Killed President Kennedy (1988)

While ignoring the Mob in his official capacity. Hoover was less
exclusive in his personal relationships. He often stayed for
free at the Las Vegas hotels of construction tycoon Del E. Webb,
whose holdings were permeated with organized crime
entanglements. Hoover and Webb also met frequently on vacations
in Del Mar, California. During Hoover's annual trips to that
city's luxurious Del Charro Motel, his bill was paid by its
owner, Clint Murchison, Jr., Hoover's "bosom pal. Murchison, a
Texas oil tycoon who backed Lyndon Johnson, was questionably
involved with both the Teamsters and Bobby Baker, infamous LBJ
aide whose misdeeds will be discussed. But Hoover continued to
accept Murchison's hospitality, even while Murchison's dealings
with Baker were being investigated by both the Senate and
Hoover's own FBI.

(5) Madeleine Brown, interviewed on the television programme, A
Current Affair (24th February, 1992)

On Thursday night, Nov. 21, 1963, the last evening prior to
Camelot's demise, I attended a social at Clint Murchison's home.
It was my understanding that the event was scheduled as a
tribute honoring his long time friend, J. Edgar Hoover (whom
Murchison had first met decades earlier through President
William Howard Taft), and his companion, Clyde Tolson. Val Imm,
the society editor for the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald,
unwittingly documented one of the most significant gatherings in
American history. The impressive guest list included John
McCloy, Richard Nixon, George Brown, R. L. Thornton, H. L. Hunt
and a host of others from the 8F group. The jovial party was
just breaking up when Lyndon made an unscheduled visit. I was
the most surprised by his appearance since Jesse had not
mentioned anything about Lyndon's coming to Clint's. With
Lyndon's hectic schedule, I never dreamed he could attend the
big party. After all, he had arrived in Dallas on Tuesday to
attend the Pepsi-Cola convention. Tension filled the room upon
his arrival. The group immediately went behind closed doors. A
short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared I
knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing...
not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard,
it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating
whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one
I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys
will never embarrass me again - that's no threat - that's a
promise."

(6) Madeleine Brown, Texas in the Morning (1998)

Just a few weeks later (after the assassination) I mentioned to
him that people in Dallas were saying he himself had something
to do with it. He became really violent, really ugly, and said
it was American Intelligence and oil that were behind it. Then
he left the room and slammed the door It scared me.

(7) Anthony Summers, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (1993)

Murchison, Snr., like almost all oilmen, had backed Johnson for
the White House in 1960, and his fears about Kennedy turned out
to be justified. The young President made no secret of his
opposition to the oil moguls' extraordinary tax privileges, and
moved quickly to change them. Murchison and his associates, it
turns out, were linked to the assassination saga by a series of
disconcerting coincidences.

George de Mohrenschildt, an oil geologist who knew Murchison and
had worked for one of his companies, was on intimate terms with
alleged assassin Oswald. He would be found shot dead in 1977, an
apparent suicide, on the day an Assassinations Committee
investigator called to arrange an interview.